


Reading Into Things

by brokendestiel



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-06
Updated: 2014-03-10
Packaged: 2018-01-14 17:08:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1274419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokendestiel/pseuds/brokendestiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[Normal Lives AU]Dean is a closet nerd who discovers a new book series in a pile of recommendations in the library.  He's left wondering who would leave a book of their own there, but after reading it he's left with so many questions he'd like to discuss with someone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work in progress, I've been pretty busy lately but thought about this and wanted to give it a shot. No beta so all mistakes are my own, if you like it though, i'd appreciate some feedback so I know if I should keep going with it or not? I'll probably change the title once I think of a better one, and the Summary could use a bit of work...

Walking down through the aisles of the library Dean ran his hands along the shelves, lightly touching the spine of each book. He wonders through each section slowly, taking his time, periodically taking a seemingly random selection and thumbing through its pages before either adding it to a small but growing stack or placing it back on the shelf. After becoming satisfied with his choices he begins to make his way toward the front desk when a book sitting at the end of the aisle catches his attention. He carefully picks it up, and turns it over in his hands, it is well worn with frayed edges and a cracked spine. He looks it over and sees that it has no summary on either of its faded covers, but it has an interesting title and was sitting in a pile marked “Recommended” so he adds it to the stack in hand that seems to be growing heavier by the minute and continues on his way.

At the front counter Dean is met with a bright smile from an older woman “Morning Mrs. Moseley.” Dean smiles back at the librarian. “How are you today?”

“Just fine, sweetie. It seems like that stack of books you pack up here every week gets bigger and bigger each time.” She teased as he began handing her the books in his arms.

“Maybe I should cut back then? Not all at once though, I don’t think I could go cold turkey.” He laughed softly, he had been making his weekly visits here long enough for both of them to know he’d never cut back his reading. He took the thin framed glasses from his face and put them away in his front pocket, he didn’t think they suited him that well but he only needed them for reading so he didn’t want to waste money buying a new pair when those worked just fine.

“Oh, this is an interesting old book isn’t it? Where’d you find it?” She turned the old book that Dean had picked up last around to look at it. 

Dean pointed over to the table he had found the book on, “It was over there in the recommended section, I figured you put it there.” 

“Hmm, no I haven’t read it before. It must have been the new guy they’ve brought in to take my place in a few months. Well, wherever it came from it isn’t ours, see?” She held the book up to show that it didn’t have a label marking it as property of the library or a bar code to scan in order to mark it as checked out.

Dean was saddened to learn about Mrs. Moseley’s retirement, she had been working there for as long as he had been coming there and they had gotten to know each other pretty well. Dean and Mrs. Moseley had a shared interest in reading, and when you’ve gotten that in common you never really run out of things to talk about. 

“If you’d like just go ahead and take it with you, you can bring it back next week and in the meantime I’ll ask around and see if it really was the new guy who set it or who it belongs to.” She handed the stack back to him along with a paper list of dates the books are to be returned by. 

“Have a good one, Mrs. Moseley” He waved. “I’ll see you next week!”

“Lord willing.” She smiled.

\---------------

 

After fumbling with his keys, Dean finally managed to enter his apartment and set the stack of books on the coffee table. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and let himself fall back on his couch with loud groan. It had been a long day for him at the shop, they had gotten a couple of last minute calls about cars getting stuck in ditches along the roadside nearby and both times he had been on his way out the door when the call would come in. 

He’d been working at Singer Salvage as a mechanic since moving from Kansas nearly 2 years ago. He liked his job a lot, and he was ready for a change since his mother had died, and his brother had moved across the country after finishing law school, so he got in touch with an old family friend, Bobby Singer, and asked about maybe working for him until something more permanent opened up. As it turned out once Dean had gotten there Bobby had been so impressed with his skills he refused to let him get snatched up by another garage.

Dean had just taken his boots off and was getting ready to dive into the new novels sitting in front of him when there was a knock at the door. Shit. He scrambled to get all the books into his arms, dropping one then bumping his shin on the table as he bent to pick it up. Whoever was at the door knocked again. 

“Wait a minute, will ya?” Dean yelled in the general direction of the knock. He ran into the bedroom and dropped the books onto the bed, as he was leaving the room he turned back and threw a sheet over them for good measure. The knock came a third time louder than before.

“Damnit! I said I’d be here in just a second!” He hollered as he was opening the door to reveal a group of his friends from the shop looking slightly amused. One by one they began filing into the living room, without waiting for an invitation. Rufus, an older black man put a 6 pack of beer in Deans arms as he walked by. Bobby, a gruff old man with a thick beard and trucker hat, just looked perturbed. Then in came Garth, a skinny pale man a few years younger than Dean, smiled goofily.

Benny, a tall man with a thick Louisianan accent, was the last to enter with a slap to Dean’s back, “What took you so long, brother? You jackin’ off in here or somethin’?” He laughed to himself. “Don’t tell me you forgot you promised us a game of cards here tonight?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long for the update! It's mostly background and introduction here, we'll get into the real plot line next chapter, I promise it's there!! Again, all mistakes are my own. I'm trying to update bi-weekly, or at least weekly. This is my first fic really so learning my writing process is taking time! Don't hate me!

The guys from the shop all took a seat around in the living room while Dean went to his bedroom to fetch the card table he kept stored in the back of his closet. As he was rolling the table out the door he came face to face with Garth. He jumped back in surprise, dropping the folding chairs hanging from each arm. “What the hell? Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“Sorry man, just came to see if you needed any help.” Garth attempted to peak around Dean’s shoulder.

“No! No!…I mean…uh.. no, I’m good, I’ve got it. Why don’t you go grab another beer or soda or something?” Dean quickly closed the door behind him.

“What do you keep back there anyways that’s so private? You never let anyone in when we come over….is it a sex torture dungeon?” Garth walked away, laughing at his own joke. 

A sex torture dungeon would probably be less embarrassing. Dean thought as picked the chairs back up. In actuality Dean’s bedroom was decorated with posters and other memorabilia from his favorite sci-fi/fantasy series, movies, and books. Normally when he had a date over, he would take them to the spare bedroom because of it. 

Once they were set up in the living room and bowls of snacks and bottles of beer was passed around they began playing cards. Dean normally had a pretty good time when the guys were together and playing cards, but tonight he just really wanted to get to his books. He had completely forgotten it was guys night and had spent too much time picking them out rather than setting up.

“Hold on before you deal the next hand, Benny, I gotta visit the little girls room.” Rufus stretched as he stood.

“Make it fast, old man. I’m not done take these boys to the cleaners.” Bobby laughed at his growing pile of poker chips. Rufus just shook his head and made his way down the hallway only to return a moment later.

“Hey, Dean, you’re out of hand soap in the john, mind if I use yours?” He placed his hands on Dean’s bedroom door.

“NO!” Dean coughed and rubbed the back of his head as everyone turned to look at him. “Um, there’s extra soap in the cabinet underneath the sink. Just use that.” Rufus rolled his eyes and walked off.

“Woah, what was that, brother? Gettin’ all defensive about your man-cave, don’t want us seeing your porn collection? Ain’t nothing to be ashamed about.” Benny laughed.

“He’s got a sex torture dungeon in there.” Garth chimed in.

“I don’t---“ Dean rubbed his forehead. “I don’t have a sex torture dungeon, Garth. It’s just my private area. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a bedroom with normal bedroom things.”

After that the rest of the night went more smoothly, other than Garth getting trashed after a single beer resulting in an argument over who would be the one to take him home. In the end it was settled that Bobby would take him in the back of his truck, to let the cool night air sober him up. 

Now that they were gone and Dean had the place to himself he decided to leave the cleaning up until the next day. His apartment was sweltering, so he walked to his bedroom and opened a window and changed his dirty jeans and Led Zepplin t-shirt for a pair of grey cotton pajama bottoms, and no shirt. 

He neatly stacked his books up in the floor next to the bed, picking the mystery book up from the top of the pile and relaxed against the headboard. He thought to himself that he would read a few pages, get a feel for the book and turn in. He didn’t have work the next day, but he would use the morning to get the place cleaned up and spend the rest of the day running errands or working on his baby, a ’67 Chevy Impala his father had given him for his high school graduation.

Several hours and no sleep later, Dean closed the finished book. Once he began reading it he couldn’t put it down, It was about a heavenly war between angels and demons and just as he gotten to the end the angels had all fallen to Earth all because of one well-meaning angel. He really wanted to see how the rest of the series panned out, but he needed some rest, and he still had a whole pile of books to read before returning to the library next week. 

I’ll just have to wait, I’ve got too much to do now. If I knew it was going to end on such a cliff hanger I would have read slower or saved it for last. He thought to himself as he turned over in bed for a quick nap.

Sleep wouldn’t come for him though, he was still suffering from what he called a book-hangover, where he couldn’t seem to get out of a book’s world until he either read another book or had time to think it all over. He tossed and turned like that for a few minutes before getting up and going to the shower.

\-------

All chores and errands forgotten, he pulled into the parking lot at the library. It wasn’t his normal day but he thought he could at least find out who recommended the book and it return it to them, pick up the next one, and continue his day knowing he’d find out what happened to the angels later.

Walking in he noticed Mrs. Mosely wasn’t there, no one was actually. He stepped up to the counter about the time a man in his late 20s, early 30s at the most came walking out of a small room where books are deposited into after hours, wheeling a cart. Dean couldn’t help but stare at the man, he had thick 5 o’clock shadow even though it was still early, but what he noticed most was his brilliantly shaded blue eyes that stood out against the contrast of his dark unruly hair. 

“Hey, you need help with anything?” The man smiled when he noticed Dean looking at him.

“Uh… oh, yeah um” He cleared his throat, noticing the other man’s amusement. “I picked up this book the other day, I don’t know who it belongs to or anything but I was just going to drop it back off and see if you have the next one in?”

“Castiel.”   
“I’m sorry?” Dean looked confused now.

“My name is Castiel.” He extended his hand. “I’m the one taking over for Mrs. Mosely in a few months, you’re Dean, right? She told me she lent my book out to you.”

“Yeah, Dean Winchester.” He took the offered hand, lingering a bit too long. “So, you were the one to put the book over there?” Castiel nodded. “It was great! But, I really would like to know what happens to the angels in the next book” Dean went on about his ideas about possible metaphors and theories about the plot line until he realized he was wasn’t giving the other man a chance to speak. “Oh man, I’m really sorry I’m keeping you tied up here! I tend to ramble when I’m talking about books…”

Castiel laughed. “It’s okay, I’m the same way with my books too. Unfortunately the library doesn’t have this series, I put that one out by mistake actually. I was re-reading it when I must have sat it down and forgot about it. I’d like to thank you for bringing it back though.”

“Oh you don’t have them? I went online to read more about them, too. There’s a pretty big fan base for them, but from what I found it looks like the series is unfinished, like the author just dropped off the face of the Earth.” Dean looked down to fidget with his keys. “I’d like to at least read what’s out though, in case he comes back, it’s only been 2 years who knows?”

Castiel hesitated a moment. “Well, the library doesn’t have them, but I’ve got them all. I usually don’t lend my books out, but since you brought this one back you seem pretty trustworthy. The library is closed tomorrow since its Sunday, and I’m scheduled off on Monday, so I can bring it with me to work on Tuesday. Will that work for you?”

Castiel saw the look of disappointment in his green eyes, he smirked to himself getting an idea. “Tell you what, how about you take me to lunch and on the way back we’ll swing by my place and I’ll grab that book for you?”

Dean’s eyes grew wide. Was he being asked on a date? Not that he objected to that, after all this guy was stunning. “Yeah! Uh, yeah, I can do that! What time can I pick you up?”

After exchanging phone numbers and information for his lunch date, Dean headed out the door to get ready. The day was looking up, not only was he getting his new book but he got a date as well. That was the first time his book worm image worked for him in that regard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's it for now, keep going? Don't quit your day job? Let me know what you think in the comments or leave a Kudos if you like it! You can follow my Tumblr at BrokenDestiel if you'd like to keep updated :)


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